Torsten, loved this, thank you! How do you recommend dealing with excess who want to be “in the details”? Anticipate with appendices or include after a recommendation up front?
How much detail is helpful to proactively share depends 1) on the executive and your experience with their style and 2) what exactly you're presenting.
But let's look at a generic example, e.g. international expansion. As a general rule, I would lead with the recommendation or decision, so here I would start with which market you recommend entering first, and a brief explanation why.
You could already volunteer additional information by showing a decision matrix with the short-list of markets you considered and the criteria / color coding. Even if you don't talk over every single cell in the matrix, people can see how you arrived at the final recommendation.
You could then offer to go deeper on each evaluation criteria and things like methodology, if desired. You definitely need to have slides / documentation prepped on this stuff (there's a difference between not addressing something proactively and not being prepared for it). E.g. if one of your criteria is the size of the Total Addressable Market (TAM), you should be able to show how you calculated that etc..
In my experience, as long as you offer to go deeper and are able to speak to it when asked, it's rarely an issue if you leave details out of your initial presentation. On the flip side though, if you go too deep proactively, you're perceived as "too in the weeds".
This is an excellent field guide, love all the war stories. Reducing the message to its core without sacrificing much significant information is a true craft.
A senior Coast Guard Captain, sitting at his desk, was presented with the summary of a situation by one of his new subordinates, a young Ensign.
The Ensign asked the Captain what he should do about the situation. The Captain took a deep breath, looked down at the floor, and bit his lower lip. He was clearly discomfited.
The Ensign stood by, mystified at what he could have said to upset his Captain.
Finally the Captain looked up, held his hands open, and said, "John, if I tell you what to do...well then I'm doing your job."
The Captain explained:
"In the future, when you bring me something, always bring a recommendation. That way, if I agree, I will OK it and the decision will have been made as efficiently as possible.
If I don't agree I will tell you why, and we have a solid basis on which to discuss the proposal."
The Captain was the best boss the Ensign ever worked for.
Torsten, loved this, thank you! How do you recommend dealing with excess who want to be “in the details”? Anticipate with appendices or include after a recommendation up front?
How much detail is helpful to proactively share depends 1) on the executive and your experience with their style and 2) what exactly you're presenting.
But let's look at a generic example, e.g. international expansion. As a general rule, I would lead with the recommendation or decision, so here I would start with which market you recommend entering first, and a brief explanation why.
You could already volunteer additional information by showing a decision matrix with the short-list of markets you considered and the criteria / color coding. Even if you don't talk over every single cell in the matrix, people can see how you arrived at the final recommendation.
You could then offer to go deeper on each evaluation criteria and things like methodology, if desired. You definitely need to have slides / documentation prepped on this stuff (there's a difference between not addressing something proactively and not being prepared for it). E.g. if one of your criteria is the size of the Total Addressable Market (TAM), you should be able to show how you calculated that etc..
In my experience, as long as you offer to go deeper and are able to speak to it when asked, it's rarely an issue if you leave details out of your initial presentation. On the flip side though, if you go too deep proactively, you're perceived as "too in the weeds".
Simple, but as you state, it's not easy to distill a message to this state of clarity.
It's worth cultivating this skill set, though. Thanks for this thorough overview of how to get started!
Interesting points of view.
This is an excellent field guide, love all the war stories. Reducing the message to its core without sacrificing much significant information is a true craft.
Answer First is the way, but always easier said than done
Excellent lessons, Torsten!
Reminds me of a story:
A senior Coast Guard Captain, sitting at his desk, was presented with the summary of a situation by one of his new subordinates, a young Ensign.
The Ensign asked the Captain what he should do about the situation. The Captain took a deep breath, looked down at the floor, and bit his lower lip. He was clearly discomfited.
The Ensign stood by, mystified at what he could have said to upset his Captain.
Finally the Captain looked up, held his hands open, and said, "John, if I tell you what to do...well then I'm doing your job."
The Captain explained:
"In the future, when you bring me something, always bring a recommendation. That way, if I agree, I will OK it and the decision will have been made as efficiently as possible.
If I don't agree I will tell you why, and we have a solid basis on which to discuss the proposal."
The Captain was the best boss the Ensign ever worked for.